The Night Time Is The Right Time (to take photos!)

105 second exposure taken after sunset

Taking landscapes after sunset, if done correctly, can produce some amazing results.  It is one of my favorite styles of photography but isn't as straightforward as shooting during the day.  Once you learn the basics on how photography works at night, the possibilities for unique and creative photos are endless.  With the right equipment and a basic knowledge of the fundamentals of photography, one can take a unique photograph that shows a scene in a way we can't see in person. 

Headlights from oncoming cars illuminate the forground

To start things off lets go over the basics.  Photography is all about the capture of light.  That principle stays the same no matter what time a photo is taken and is part of what makes night photography so intriguing.  Since there is less visible light at night than during the day it is necessary to use a longer exposure to get an image that is adequately exposed.  Once you start dealing with exposures longer than 1/60th of a second, having a good quality tripod becomes essential for creating sharp images.  There are many tripods out there but I currently use a Feisol 3441-T  carbon fiber tripod/head combo.  I've also have the less expensive but larger Manfrotto 055XPROB aluminum tripod with 498RC2 head and used it with great results. 

In camera, you are limited to the maximum exposure time of 30" which may seem like a long time but there are applications where exposures longer than 30" are necessary.  With a intervalometer, you have the ability to use "Bulb" mode to take exposures for as long as you wish.  I recommend this affordable off-brand intervalometer which I use that does a fine job but only costs a fraction of what Canon's does.  I always use aperture priority mode and set my aperture based off of the depth of field I want for the exposure.  I then lock in the ISO at 100 and let the camera meter the shot.  I find that setting the EV to +1 is the way to go as it gives more shadow details.  I then take a look at that exposure and make changes if necessary.

For night landscape photography, it can be difficult to light the foreground of a scene when exposing for the night sky.  There are a couple ways to light the foreground.  First, you can take an exposure optimized for the sky, then take another one optimized for the foreground and can blend them together in post-processing.

Flashlight was used to "paint" the foreground of this shot

The other way is to use a flashlight to light up the foreground.  This technique is called "light painting" and is a lot of fun to do.  It is simple, just take a flashlight and shine it on the area you want to light up.  It is usually a good idea to paint in small circles, constantly moving the flashlight so that the foreground is lit up aquatically and evenly.  You can even get in front of the camera and paint a larger area.  As long as you are continually moving and there won't be a trace of you in the frame.  Be careful not shine the light directly into the camera as it will ruin the exposure.   It takes some practice but light-painting gives you the option to be creative.  Try using different color lights, selectively painting areas you would like to highlight, or using multiple lights and you can create a variety of effects.

Choosing a composition for night photography is similar to photography during the day except you don't need to worry about the sun.  That being said the sun does influence the sky during twilight.  Although the sun has set and there is no longer visible color in the sky that doesn't mean it is time to pack up your gear and go home.  In fact some of the more spectacular images are taken during this time of limbo between light and dark which is called the "blue hour" by photographers as the sky is a rich blue color and some of the residual colors of sunset still remain.  This period is sacred to photographers as the light is at its best.  Later on in the night the sun isn't a factor but you may notice light pollution coming from cities and towns that can dominate your frame.  The lights are much brighter than can be seen with the naked eye and can create some neat effects and colors if used to your advantage.


Stay tuned for Part 2 of this post concerning astro-photography, star trails, and photographing the Milky Way and as always if anyone has any questions about this post, reply below and I'll do my best to answer them. 

Lightroom 5, Is Photoshop Necessary Anymore?

 Adobe has just released their new version of Lightroom, available for for $150 for new customers and only $80 for users upgrading from Lightroom 4.  Lightroom 5 is also available for users of the Adobe Creative Cloud for $50 a month along with their whole Creative Suite.

The big question here is if the upgrade is worth the money.  I've tested the beta version of Lightroom 5 and was very impressed with some of the new features, especially the enhanced ability of the "spot removal" tool to now act very much like Photoshop's "clone" tool.  Adobe claims to have completely redone the algorithms behind the tool, improving it's ability to create a more realistic look.  With their old "spot removal" tool from Lightoom 4 it was very difficult to get any realistic results and it was usually necessary to go into Photoshop to get the desired result.

Another cool new feature in Lightroom 5 is the radial mask tool.  I had the opportunity  to use this feature editing a friend's botched wedding photographs to try to salvage a few shots.  The whole concept of a mask in Lightroom is new and it does not resemble Photoshop's masks, it is much easier to understand and manipulate.  It is extremely powerful for highlighting part of a photograph or to make a variety of other changes to contrast, shadows, highlights, clarity, or any of Lightroom's sliders.  Where in Photoshop masks can be complicated and hard to master, masks in Lightroom are intuitive and easy to use without any experience.

The new "Upright" tool is also very interesting, especially for architecture/landscape photographers.  Most of this ability is in Lightroom 4 but Lightroom 5 introduces automated corrections that do a remarkably good job of straightening horizontal and vertical lines of buildings or bridges as well as evening out horizons with one click.  This can save a lot of time when batch processing photos and gives you one less thing to worry about.  This feature also includes an automatic chromatic aberration removal button. 

As a landscape and portrait photographer, I rarely use Adobe Photoshop CS 6 and when I do it is mainly to do some minor cloning.  With a $900 price tag, this can be an expensive feature and with Adobe now moving Photoshop to a subscription only service via the Creative Cloud, one would no longer even own the software. At $50 a month (assuming no price increases) one would have to pay $6,000 for Photoshop and it's family of software in 10 years of use and if they didn't have enough money to pay Adobe that next month, they would lose their ability to produce work.

For new photographers, I wouldn't recommend buying Photoshop as it is has become a behemoth of a program that is not very intuitive.   Lightroom on the other-hand is a very easy to use tool that is very powerful for photographers of all sizes of workflows.  It seems that Adobe is placing Lightroom to fill the amateur/semi-pro photographer niche while taking Photoshop out of that spot and marketing it towards professional studios.   

While Adobe makes this transition, they have been continually adding features from Photoshop into Lightroom and  have revamped some of the features making them better in Lightroom than in Photoshop.  In this latest offering, Adobe has given photographers the ability to do the majority of processing in Lightroom without taking the time and effort of taking their photo into Photoshop to do further editing.

Don't get me wrong, Photoshop is a very powerful program but caters for a much larger audience than just photographers.  Many of the features that photographers use in Photoshop weren't created with them in mind.  In Lightroom, however, photographer's and their workflow are  the first priority and it shows.  For those who currently have Lightroom 4, I would still suggest the upgrade to Lightroom 5 as the new features in Lightroom 5 make it a much more powerful post-proccessing program with the ability to replace Photoshop in your workflow.

Personally I'm going to make the upgrade soon and will continue to use the NIK Software package to supplement my Lightroom editing, hopefully phasing out Photoshop from my workflow.